A cisgene is a natural gene, coding for an (agricultural) trait, from the crop plant itself or from a sexually compatible donor plant that can be used in conventional breeding. The gene belongs to the conventional breeder’s gene pool.

A cisgenic plant contains no foreign genes.

A transgene is a gene from a non-crossable species or it is a synthetic gene. It represents a new gene pool for plant breeding.

A transgenic plant is a GM-plant that contains transgenes.

Traditional or conventional breeding is using all classical and modern insights and techniques, including those related to biotechnology, however, without genetic modification. It includes a number of techniques that are not regarded as genetic modification or that are exempted from the GMO-legislation.

GMO-legislations, like the Directive 2001/18/EC, are the safety regulations for development and handling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and products thereof in contained use, field experiments and market release.